It may seem like common sense that you need to get your ideas out of your head to act on them, but how many of us walk around with an always-updating to-do list in our heads only to forget one of them later? One of the basic principles of GTD and many other productivity systems is that your first step is to get your ideas and to-dos out of your head and on paper or into some system as soon as possible so you have the clarity to actually work on them.

The blog GTD Times asked David Allen, author of the book Getting Things Done and creator of the GTD productivity technique, what he considers the first step towards embracing any productivity technique, whether it's GTD or something else, and his response was simple: get it all out of your head. Whether you use pen and a simple notebook that you can carry around with you, the ever-popular hipster PDA, or some fancy desktop or mobile app, the key is to put them somewhere you can refer to them so you're not overwhelmed by the ideas in your head or unmotivated because you can't remember what to work on next. We've covered more than a few to-do managers at Lifehacker, and most of them are designed to help you do this.

Whatever system or tool you use, the goal is to make that tool part of your lifestyle so they fit in well, and the result will be that you'll be able to focus on each task without worrying about what's next or whether you should work on a new idea before you forget it. How do you make sure you get your ideas out before you forget them or get distracted by another task? Share your tips in the comments below.